The University of Miami (Fla.)hired Craig Anderson as associate athletic director for compliance. Anderson was assistant athletic director for compliance at North Carolina State University.

John Blanchard, University of North Carolina senior associate athletic director, retired after 25 years at the university.

Valparaiso University hired John Kuka as an associate athletic director and Matt LaBarbera as the associate director of annual giving for athletics. Kuka was director of athletics development at DePauw University, and LaBarbera worked with ticketing, donor management and email marketing solutions at NeuLion.

Fran Ganter, Penn State associate athletic director for football administration, retired after 46 years with program as a player, coach and administrator.

Wheelock College hired Dwight Datcher as athletic director. Datcher was director of marketing for RBK Construction, and previously served as athletic director at Howard University.

FacilitiesCenterplate promoted Ashley Brown to vice president of specialty retail and David Winarski to vice president of human resources and hired Lila Kahn as director of marketing for the Centerplate Restaurant Group and John JohnsonIII as purchasing manager for facility management and design.

Football
The Cleveland Browns hired Ray Farmer as assistant general manager, and named Michael Lombardi general manager. Farmer was director of pro personnel for the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Washington Redskins hired A.J. Smith as a senior executive. Smith was executive vice president and general manager for the San Diego Chargers.

Golf
The PGA Tour named Rick Anderson executive vice president of television and new media, David Pillsbury executive vice president of championship management and tournament business, Ty Votaw executive vice president and chief global communications officer and Allison Keller senior vice president of human resources and corporate affairs.

Hockey
The Boston Bruins promoted Kate Green to human resources manager and hired Richard Yutkins as a fan relations representative. Yutkins was an inside sales representative for the Boston Celtics.

BARTOSHYK

The Alberta Junior Hockey League promoted Ryan Bartoshyk to commissioner.

MarketingIMG College promoted Matt Almond to general manager for Washington State IMG Sports Marketing and named Mike Kohler general manager for Cal IMG Sports Marketing at the University of California.

Home Team Marketing promoted Christopher Spear to executive vice president of sales.

MediaTurner Broadcasting named Justin Williams vice president of digital for TNT and TBS. Williams was senior director and general manager of NASCAR.com for Turner Sports.

People news
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Wentzell is traveling around the country to talk with Sportservice clients.Photo by: DELAWARE NORTH COS.

John Wentzell spent his first 16 years with Delaware North Cos. as an arena management executive at TD Garden, where he was also president of DNC Boston for six years.
In January, Wentzell took over as president of Sportservice, the company’s food and hospitality division. In MLB alone, Wentzell now oversees accounts with the Detroit Tigers, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Cardinals. He spoke recently with staff writer Don Muret.

■As you meet with clients, what are there concerns?
There are common, underlying themes [with] product differentiation they look to provide. It’s about establishing a value proposition as they sell ticketing products, wherever they may be. They’re looking for our participation and integration in creating those new products and making them work.

■How has your facility operations experience helped address the needs of Sportservice clients?
It’s great to be able to sit across from our clients and say I understand specifically the issues you’re thinking about and how the experience around food and beverage fits into various seating products.

■One of your clients, the Cleveland Indians, made news by reducing food prices for the 2013 baseball season. Is this something other teams are talking about?
I wouldn’t say it’s a huge issue in terms of pricing sensitivity. Across baseball, the majority of our clients have gone up in pricing across the board. That’s not to say there aren’t certain prices that were either held constant or were repackaged, whether it’s beer, hot dogs or pizza.

■How has your hockey business been during the shortened NHL season?
It’s been very good. … There have been some ups and downs in a few places. Nashville has been tremendous with fan reaction and attendance, with spending terrific across food and beverage and retail. That’s been a particularly bright spot.

■Bringing local brands to the ballpark continues to be a strong trend for all food providers. What’s new on that front for Sportservice?
We will be rolling out one to two food trucks [in MLB] to complement our existing operations. There are diverse uses for those trucks, both on game day but also non-game day, working directly with our clients to bring part of the ballpark food experience directly to community events.

■Do you see the mobile piece of concessions finally gaining some traction?
Adoption has been very low … hampered by technology restrictions in stadiums as far as being able to get a signal. We need to catch up as an industry.

Adam Barrett was a 20-something CPA in south Florida in the late 1980s, bored with his job. One of his clients was in the same office building that housed the administrative home of the Lipton Championships tennis event. The young tournament, then just a few years old, was moving its accounting function to Florida from Lipton’s New Jersey corporate headquarters. The tournament planned to hire someone to handle the function, and Barrett won the job, starting in 1990. In 2003, he became director for the tournament, which is now known as the Sony Open and is one of America’s premier tennis events.

— Compiled by Daniel Kaplan

Photo by: SONY OPEN TENNIS

“
I fell in love with the event business.”

On this year’s event, which starts this week: Ticket sales are strong, sponsors are strong, we have local and global sponsors, governmental support has been great. … We continue to grow and crowds continue to grow.

Any concerns about the potential sale of event owner IMG?: My philosophy on life is just continue doing the best job you can. … These are things I cannot control. I will run the best event I can, and hopefully it will work for the event, it will work out for myself, and it will work out for my staff. I tell my team I believe we control our own destiny with strong results.

On the state of tennis in the U.S.: Globally, tennis is strong. Right now, we are waiting for our next superstars. … Tennis is good in the U.S.; it is not great in the U.S.

Reaction to rival BNP Paribas Open’s increased spending: What Indian Wells is doing is great for them and great for the sport. It is creating and elevating the business that we are in. I completely respect what they are doing. … They are fortunate to have an owner [Larry Ellison] who has the ability to write a check and make these things happen.

How does that affect the Sony Open?: I continue to believe we will do the best we can. … We have a great environment, between the ocean and the bay; we have south Florida weather; we have an international crowd that brings energy.